Phoebe's POV:

Today was my first day at my new job and I was excited. O'Keefe was driving me like a proud parent to my first day on the job. Georgia and I had gone shopping for respectable work attire. My closet now consisted of conservative dresses and skirts, dress pants and shirts, and a couple of pant suits. I felt like a grown up now.

"Am I picking you up for lunch?" O'Keefe questioned from up front in the driver's seat.

"No, I'll probably get something from the café or something."

"I'll be here to pick you up after then. How do your parents feel about you getting a job instead of going to school?"

"They were mad at first but then they realized that I was serious about wanting to do this."

"Have you told them about Blaine yet?"

I made O'Keefe promise not to tell anyone about me moving out of the apartment. He did not like keeping secrets from Taylor or my father so it was hard for him. I know that he wanted to resist at first but his moral compass kept him from spilling the beans about the breakup.

"No and you can't either or you're fired."

He smirked, "You aren't my employer, your father is. I would never betray your trust, as long as I didn't think it put your health in jeopardy."

"Thank you," I said to him as we pulled up to the curb.

O'Keefe opened the door for me but stopped me from going any further, "You're going to kick ass today Ms. Grey."

"Can I hug you?"

There was a strict no touching policy that he enacted, "I'm not that happy for you. Now get going before you're late."

Mr. Zano's secretary, Oliver, took all of my information down for payroll. I was getting paid minimum wage but salary did not matter to me when I was finally going to be doing a job that I love.

"So, be honest, how's working for Mr. Zano?"

Oliver gave me a genuine smile, "It's great. He's a good boss that's demanding but fair and as long as you do what's expected of you, you'll be rewarded. Don't get on his bad side which means don't be late, don't steal, don't leak information to his competitors, and never give him coffee. That's when the real monster comes out. He only drinks green tea, black. You're going to love working here and you're going to love his son."

I made a mental note to never try and kiss his ass by buying everyone coffee.

"His son is the one who hired me."

Oliver's smile widened, "Mr. Zano must like what he sees."

"What's the younger Zano like?"

"Why don't see for yourself?" Oliver nodded towards the office across the hall.

There was a glass wall separating the two offices with a door in the middle. The younger Mr. Zano was sitting at his desk talking to the older Mr. Zano who was standing.

"Is he as nice as his father?" I asked Oliver.

"He may be nicer," Oliver admitted, "Damn shame that the boy isn't gay."

I laughed, "Maybe for you."

"That's true. What about you, are you single?"

"It's," I searched for the right words, "Complicated."

"Well you can tell me over lunch today. My treat."

I had made my first gay friend and I loved it, "Sounds great. I'll see you later."

I walked over to the younger Mr. Zano's office, prepared to meet my future boss. I took him in. He looked like his father, that was a given, but a much younger version. His hair was slightly disheveled but in a way that suited him. Younger Zano had deep brown eyes, unlike his father who had hazel eyes. There was a little bit of scruff on younger Zano's face as well. I was attracted, that was a given, but then I felt guilty.

Was I allowed to be attracted to other men at the moment? I did not know if I was ever going to get back together with Blaine. Blaine obviously wanted to get back together with me but it did not mean that I was ready to trust him again. I settled with being able to look but not pursue anything then realized how was I even supposed to know if younger Zano even thought I was attractive? All of these thoughts entered my brain as I walked to his office.

From afar I could tell that the two of them were arguing over something; causing me to hesitate at the door. The older Mr. Zano caught me and waved me in; younger Zano did not seem to like it but tried to hide behind a fake smile.

"Ms. Grey, meet my son, Damien," Mr. Zano introduced the two of us, "Damien, Phoebe."

"Pleasure to meet you Phoebe;" Damien held out his hand, "I'm glad that you'll be joining our team."

"Thank you, I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

"Nonsense, in fact, you could actually settle the disagreement. My son seems to think that our new cover for next month is boring."

The cover in question lay on the table. The cover was boring, but I did not know if I was able to speak freely yet.

"There's a lack of color and engagement," I tried to put it as nicely as possible.

"You're fired," the older Zano said but smiled, "I'm joking. Well what would you do to make it more appealing?"

I told them my ideas with a few sketches and showed them different layouts to make certain features stand out more than other. By the end of my presentation, even I was impressed with what I had come up with in such a short amount of time.

"I like it," both Zanos agreed then seemed shocked that they agreed on something.

"This may be the first time we've ever agreed on anything," Damien said.

Mr. Zano nodded in agreement, "There's a first time for everything. I knew there was a reason why we hired you. Very well down Phoebe, in fact, you should be there when we present it to the rest of the group. I'll have Oliver send over the information for the meeting. See you guys later."

Mr. Zano left me alone with Damien who was grinning at me.

"You actually impressed the old man, good for you."

"The cover was boring," I agreed, "I don't know who created that in the first place."

"He did, that's why he wanted it so badly. I didn't think he was ever going to change his mind but you somehow got him too. A victory like that deserves some type of reward. Do you drink coffee?"

"I do but it really wasn't that big of a deal."

I wanted to prove that I was modest but in the inside I was screaming and jumping with pride.

"Nonsense, I was going to go get some coffee anyways. Do you want to join me?"

I looked at Damien, really looked at him. If I agreed to go get coffee, I was not a bad person. Coffee was just coffee; it did not mean that I had to sleep with him. A part of me did want to sleep with him; call it a rebound.

"I should really get started on the presentation. Next time though."

Damien nodded with a look of disappointment on his face, "Okay. See you later."

He was gone a little less than ten minutes but came back with four cups of coffee in a tray.

"I don't take rejection easily so I decided to get you four different types of coffee and you can decide which one you want. I have black, one and one, double double, and triple triple."

"You're making it hard to reject you but thank you for the coffee," I took the double double from the tray, "Is there any flavor shots?"

"I knew I should've gone with a flavor," he cursed, "One wrong move and you ruin your chance."

"It's fine; I didn't really expect you to have a flavor shot of hazelnut with you."

"So I didn't ruin my chance with you?"

I did not know if workplace relationships were a good idea. Breakups were messy; I knew that, they did not need to be brought to the workplace. Plus, he was my boss. I did not want special treatment.

"You're my boss; I don't think that'd be a good idea. I'm just getting out of a relationship too so I don't want a rebound."

"With your high school sweetheart, right?"

Weird, "So you did your research on me? Was I hired just because I was a pretty face?"

"No, I liked your work but your looks were a plus side. I'm not going to push you for more than you're ready for. Breakups are hard and if we're going to be working together, our breaking up could make things awkward. I just want to let you know that I'm interested and whenever you're ready; I'll be here."

I could tell that he was not giving me some line in hopes to get in my pants; everything that he was saying was the truth and I liked that. I wanted more trust in my next relationship.

"Okay," I smiled at him.

"Now get to work, we have a presentation to ace."

Today was going to be good.

Blaine's POV:

Exhaustion was a feeling that I knew very well now. I was always tired. During the day was school, followed by my job, then home to take care of Caden. Heather was home with him most of the time which made me feel guilty that she rarely had a break. Abby came over most days to help with Caden but other than that, Heather was alone. We could not afford a nanny so Heather was responsible for anything related to our son.

"I got the little dude something," Josh handed me a stuffed animal.

"Great, he doesn't have a million stuffed animals already."

"I thought he was too young for his first stripper but that's what I get for going against my instincts."

Josh was only trying to help. He was one of my only friends in the city and it meant a lot that he was trying his best.

"I shouldn't have snapped, I'm sorry," I apologized, "Caden doesn't sleep, like at all. I'm up all the time either studying or helping Heather with him. It's a lot more stressful than what movies and TV shows make it seem like."

"Well if it were easy, it wouldn't be parenting."

"Wise words coming from someone who has a solid 2.0," I joked.

"I'm more street smart than book smart," he shrugged it off, "Don't worry man, my sister got knocked up earlier than planned with her loser boyfriend who ran out on her. She's smart but made a stupid decision and is paying for it. She loves her daughter and is trying her best and we all see that. You'll make it through this, I promise."

His words meant more to me than it should have, "You're right, I can do this. Do you want to come over and meet Caden later?"

"Sure, that'd be awesome. Should I bring any food?"

"I'll let you know. I gotta get back before work; I'll catch up with you later."

At home, Caden was sleeping for once. Heather fell asleep holding him on the couch. The two of them looked adorable. I took Caden from Heather who scrunched up his face a little bit but fell back asleep. I did not want to put him down yet.

"I know I haven't been around a lot lately but I'm trying my best," I told Caden, "We're all trying our best little guy. I promise you that we're going to figure everything out so that you have the best childhood ever. Your mommy and I aren't perfect, anyone would tell you that, so you're kind of our redemption. I love you so much always remember that."

I kissed Caden's head then put him to sleep before I had to get ready for work.